Itty Bitty Hooves

Twins This Afternoon!

We’re on a roll here, our solid red Boer doe had twins this afternoon. She was in mild labor this morning and I thought for sure she’d have them by mid-morning. But noooo, she held out until 12:30. They’re happy, and healthy DOES. This is such a girlie year for us, Mickey is really throwing them girls around, haha. He’s also stamping them with such uniform color. In all 7 only one has been a paint color, all the rest are pretty much traditional. From the two boer mamas the babies are dark red headed traditional. From the LaMancha fawn colored doe the girls are traditionally marked, but their head color is more a mix of red and fawn. It’s really pretty though. In 7 days we’ve had 7 kids born to 3 does–only one buckling.

Here are the kids in their still slightly damp, and wobbly selves.

More New Babies!

Well kidding season is off to a really great start now. Our second doe to deliver gave us three—yeah triplets–beautiful girls. Savvy my LaMancha doe had her babies this morning at 6 am. They’re LaMancha/Boer cross. She was a real trooper, didn’t need my help at all (or want it LOL–she’s one of my friendliest does but definately had a ‘don’t touch me’ attitude) she never even laid down, not once. Just dropped each of them on their little heads as she squatted and dumped. Here are some pics taken right after their birth. I should probably wait to take pics until they’re all dry and all but I never can. LOL One thing’s for sure, Savvy has plenty of milk. She’s a great milker anyway, although I’m not doing that this year, but she was giving a gallon and a half last year. I took a cupful off of her this morning and syringed the kids because they were having a dickens of a time getting at those huge teats that were so low. Finally after giving them their little ‘boost’ they got in and figured out how to get low enough to grab onto those huge teats.

Here they are:

2 of the doelings, the other had walked over to mom and out of the shot just when I snapped

A close up to show the itty bitty elf ears. LOL

All three and mom.

Trying to get up close to show off their cute little heads.

Friendly kids

One thing I really didn’t take too much into consideration when thinking about getting back into goats this spring was whether they were friendly or not. I’ve never owned an unfriendly goat, or one that didn’t want to be around people, or be touched, or was hard to catch. Goats just seem to really like humans as a rule. At least that’s how I’d always known them to be. Certainly it’s more the rule than the exception with dairy goats. Those are all I’d ever owned before so maybe that’s why the perception I had of goats liking people. Dairy goats have to be handled daily. Usually twice daily. So they’re quite accustomed to being handled. Add to that that the majority of dairy kids are bottle fed making them EXTREMELY human bonded and you have the recipe for love.

Just recently getting involved with meat goats where the animals are generally not handled as often, or bottle raised I’ve found that many of them are hard to catch, or touch. I still don’t have any ‘mean’ ones, or none that don’t like me. They come running, BUT, they stay just out of arms reach whenever possible. LOL Recently I started looking for a purebred Boer doe and one of the breeders wrote me that the one I was looking at was very personable and liked being handled. She went on to say that most breeders don’t care. I DO. Short of building expensive shoots and catch pens I am doing my darndest to make the few I have here at least catchable. They don’t have to be lovey, in your face, like my dairy girls are, and my bottle raised kids are, but I need to be able to catch them for health care.

Now I know from new experience that it’s not necessarily a ‘bottle raised’ thing. My newest little Alpine doeling that was born here in May is being raised by her mother and she’s still the friendliest little in your face climb all over you thing on the planet. I’m really hoping that the Boer kids born here will be too just because I’m out there so often.

Sunday, Sunday… so good to me.

It took me a while to post this one because Sunday was such a long and draining day, but with good results thankfully. First we put up a new stall wall blocking the office so the goats can go in and out of the barn without causing trouble in the office where all the wires are and all my desk stuff. Then Polly decided it was finally time to have her babyalthough there was only one, it is definately a fantastic one.

Here are some pics of the new baby at about 3 hours old we named her Oreo… I know not too original, but it just fit her.


the birth was HORRIBLE. I knew the doe was in labor so I stayed with her and once she started to push I kept telling myself to be patient, but nothing was happening after about 4 serious pushes so I went in and checked. The front hoofs were there but hung up on the top of the cervix. Okay, so I popped them down. Then she pushed again and still nothing so I went in and grabbed the hoofs and with her next contraction pulled gently. The legs started to come but then things got hung up again. So little of the feet were out that it was difficult but I grabbed each tiny hoof one in each hand and kind of tried to seasaw them in case the baby’s shoulders were hung on the pelvis. The legs started to come, but the head (I had felt the muzzle, it was there) didn’t. I slid a finger up and found the head hung up on the cervix like the forehead didn’t want to come. I hooked a finger round the back of the baby’s head and tried to pull with the next contraction and got a bit of the nose outside. The kid’s tongue was hanging out and it just looked dead. I was heartbroken and crying but I knew I had to get the baby out or mom would die too so I kept pulling and seasawing the legs. I have helped all kinds of animals give birth from horses (both large and mini) to sheep, and goats in the past and have had to reposition, or pull a little to help, but NEVER have had to pull like this. I was sure I was breaking every bone in the kid’s legs, but I really didn’t think it was alive anyway.

The doe was screaming with each push (and my pull) I was crying… the baby finally came out (once the head was clear everything came out fine)…. SHE WAS ALIVE. Oh, and it’s a she. haha. The most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen, and Polly is a GREAT mother when it comes to taking care of the little darling.

So that was my Sunday…. I rested on Monday and had a nice Memorial Day with hubby just watching Tv and doing normal chores, although we did trim Sparky’s feet since they were long overdo. Over all, Monday was a day of rest around here.

Getting Used To It

Can you tell I’m ready for a vacation? It’s been a long late winter, and freaky spring, and now hot summer coming on. Just the other day I put my youngest kid (goats) in with the slightly older kids just to save myself a few extra footsteps during feeding times. They’re not terrifically happy with the idea. Not only are they not happy about it, they’re vocal about it and now they’re right outside my office window. It’s not that they’re doing any damage to each other. There’s nothing violent going on, goats just don’t like change. It takes them a long time to adjust to new herd situations. It probably doesn’t help that it’s raining today–something else goats don’t like at all. So they’re all stuck inside the houses together. Sort of a crammed in way of ‘getting to know you’ up front and personal. They’ll settle down, but it probably won’t get any quieter–the two very youngest kids are Nubians and have the biggest mouths on the planet. It’s just that before they were far enough away from the house that it wasn’t a constant chorus of come out here and play with me–resuce me. I guess I’ll be the one that has to ‘get used to it’.

Good Girls Do

I have to tell you I just love my new dairy goats. I’ve only had them a few weeks but they are giving us a gallon and a half of the best tasting, sweetest, creamiest milk every single day.

Usually when you buy a doe (female goat) that is already producing milk and move her to a new location, she will drop production. Sometimes only a little. Sometimes completely. Neither of the two I bought did anything of the sort. They are both producing exactly what the seller said they were at her farm.

Not only that but they are the sweetest girls. I have a third I brought home from the same seller, but she hasn’t kidded yet. That means she hasn’t had her babies yet, so he’s not producing milk. She’s due around the 28th of this month and I’m so excited to see the first goat babies born on this farm in many years, and anxious to begin milking her as well.

A goat has to have babies to produce milk, just like any other mammal. So every year they must be bred and have babies. That’s no problem because Mickey is waiting in the bullpen. LOL He has the two girls I just brought home last weekend with him now, and in July when I’m ready to breed him to the younger girls I got with him I’ll rotate him out into their pen, then in October I’ll take him out of there and put him in with my dairy girls. Then by January I’m hoping my youngest kids will be ready to meet Mickey. So I should have some nicely spaced babies next year, and Mickey should have female companionship for most of the year round–win, win.

Of all the goats, only two more, the youngest of the bunch here are dairy and will be taken over to the dairy side after being bred. All the rest are Boer, or Boer percentage and will stay on that side, just raising their kids, not being milked. A total of five goats to milk a day is plenty for me, and should provide plenty of milk both to drink, and to make cheeses and soaps.

I’m hoping to have soaps to sell at next years farm markets along with the kids.

Gotta Run

Yesterday was one of those days that just never seemed to quit. I’d just come in from milking and feeding and the phone rang. It was my best friend Ellen. Her mare had her baby–I had to come see.

I did. What a beautiful BIG baby. Both parents are purebred Arabians and have had foals before together and they were always beautiful, but this baby is HUGE. He’s probably the prettiest one they’ve had as well and looks like he’ll be one heck of a sport horse. She was supposed to post a picture of him on her blog but she hasn’t yet or I would have copied it and posted it here. He’s a deep black/bay with a white ‘wild’ blaze and three white fetlocks… although I’m pretty sure mom’s gray gene is going to win out on this one just like it did on the last two she had.

JUST as I got back home and prepared to come on here and write a bit the phone rang again. (Wouldn’t you just love to sometimes rip that thing out by the wires?) It was beloved son… he had the day off work but needed to go to the bank and store could I come take him (he lost his license–long story) okay, I could later on… no no the bank closes at NOON… it was eleven oclock at the time he called…. argh. Okay, jump in the car and drive down to get him and take him on his errands. He did (with a little coaxing) give me gas money (hey, being a taxi is one thing, but with the price of gas now… not for free), and even rented me a cool movie since I was ’so nice’… lol yeah, he didn’t hear me grumbling all the way down there.

Finally I got back home and managed to have a really good work day online in spite of all the interuptions and running around.

I’d like to say that busy days like that make time fly and days more enjoyable… but I can’t, once in a while it’s nice to have a slow, nothing going on but chores and relaxing–they don’t come around too often though. Gotta run

He’s HERE.

Well we’re home. Actually we got home late on Wednesday around 8 pm. It was a 5 hour drive each way to pick up Mick and the girls but it was pleasant, sunny, and a nice outting for hubby and me. We had a GREAT time at Sherry and Brant’s house. They are fantastic people and have a wonderful sense of humor. Plus Sherry made a wonderful lunch spread where we actually got our first taste of ‘Dexter burger’. Hambugers made from their own Dexter cattle meat. It was tasty, as well as a delicious apple cheese and celery salad that Sherry made. What a feast!

Too soon we had to leave to make our trip back where at first we were really worried about getting the four weanling girls off the trailer and to the paddock in the dark especially because they aren’t lead broke, or people friendly yet. They’re by no means mean, just scared. Mickey however is a real ham and very loving. He too though had never been lead ever anywhere at all, no where. LOL Soooooo we had to somehow finagle it so a 350 pound Boer buck would calmly walk across a 1/2 acre field to the paddocks, in a strange place, at night. Yeah… sure.

Halfway home I called my best friend Ellen and begged her to come help. She said I didn’t have to beg, but I did anyway, lol. We just needed someone to watch the refugees in the trailer while we unloaded and moved each one. Turned out to be a fairly simple manuveur. We used our really big great dane sized dog crate on our small flatbed cart and caught two of the girls and put them in it and pulled them over to the paddock, then came back and did the same with the other two.

Then it was time to unload the Mickster. Mighty Mick. All 350 pounds of muscle, and horns. Well let me tell you what…

A buck who’d never been led anywhere in his life walked as calm as could be on a lead to the paddock. He stopped a couple times to glance around and a gentle nudge got him moving again.

WHAT A MAN. I love that buck. He’s just the sweetest thing on four feet.

I meant to take new pictures today of the new gang, but unfortunately I can’t find my danged camera. We had it with us in Iowa, and I think I left it in the truck, which is now in Wisconsin with my husband. He had to go for the weekend to a seminar. He has to have so many hours a year of continuing education for his job’s license, and he won’t be back until late Sunday… sooo, maybe pictures on Monday if the weather holds up.

Caution–Kids At Play

It was such a beautiful day, and I had a little time between projects so I went outside and let the ‘kids’ play in the back yard. What a blast to watch! Here are a few pictures. Unfortunately most of them are ’still’ shots since the moment they started bouncing around I’d end up with blank frames because they’d bounded out of the shot before I clicked. I did manage to get one good running one.

The kid that started it all. She has grown so big in the one month since we got her as a weak two day old.

This is Amber, our second trouble child. She’s a big bruiser of a three-week old now.

This is Amelia striking a pose

Here’s Angel. I caught her just getting ready to take off, and then in full-flight.

Last, but not least. We may not have a Livestock Guardian Dog, but we have Guard Geese.

Have a great day! I’m going back outside to enjoy the sun.

Whoops, I did it again

LOL, well I just couldn’t resist. I have a new addition again. A beautiful registered Alpine doe that my friend Ellen helped out in buying. I mentioned to her when I was picking up milk for the kids this morning that there was a bred Alpine doe for sale in Indiana, but I wasn’t sure because she was said to be ’small’ and also, I really didn’t have the money at the moment.

Ellen said “I do” let’s go see her. So after running errands she came by with her trailer and we were off to Indiana. Polly was destined to come home with us. What a personality this doe has, and she’s BLACK and WHITE which is something I really wanted. I’d told Ellen that on the way there… I sure hope she’s either black, or black and white. Well she was. But it was her personality that won the day. What a lover. She’s really not all that small either. Maybe not as large as some Alpines, but not particularly teeny either. She’s bred to a purebred Alpine buck (also quite the lover) and due to kid in May. She’s pretty large already though, and we even felt the kids kicking in there. What a neat feeling.

So, Mickey has a new lady friend waiting for him, and Ellen has a partnership in the kid sales… and I have a new friend. LOL

Pictures tomorrow when the sun comes back up.